Shaykh of Al-Azhar condemns arbitrary arrests and closure of Radio Quran in West Bank

The Shaykh of Al Azhar in Cairo has called on the President of the Palestinian Authority to end the policy of arbitrary detention and torture of Palestinians in the West Bank. Dr. Ahmed Tayeb urged Mahmoud Abbas to stick to national principles, unity against the occupation and protection from Israel’s twin projects of Judaization and deportation. He also denounced the PA’s decision to close Radio Qur’an in Nablus, describing the station’s shutdown as an assault on the sensitivities of Muslims.

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The leading cleric made his call during a meeting with a delegation from the Ministry of Religious Endowments in the West Bank on 28th December. He urged all of the Palestinian factions to sign the national reconciliation document.

Meanwhile, a Muslim Brotherhood source in Egypt has quoted Dr Tayeb’s appeal to the world community to stand resolutely against the crimes committed by the illegal Zionist occupation of Islamic and Christian holy places in Palestine. The Shaykh called on the people and governments of Muslim countries to support the Palestinians in their aspiration to have a free and independent state, with Jerusalem as its capital, and to break the unjust siege of Gaza.

Dr Tayeb emphasized the need for Arab pressure on the international community to take a firm stand to end Israel’s illegal settlement of Palestinian land in Jerusalem and support resistance against the occupation.